Saudi Arabia bans 47 online video games after reported suicide of two children. In a recent move Saudi Arabia has banned 47 online games following claims that two children committed suicide because they were encouraged to do so in an online video game.
The ban was announced by Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media on Monday. The reason of putting ban on these games was cited as unspecified violations of rules and regulations.
The ban appeared after the two deaths as a 12-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl killed themselves after taking Blue Whale Challenge. The notorious game is known to offer a series of challenging tasks to players of the game.
In the past, a number of children and adult have committed suicide due to the challenge of this game. It has various stages of challenges like self-harming or staying up all night and at the end, the final challenge is committing suicide.
The death of children extremely affected their families along with the Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media. As a result, he imposed a ban on almost 50 games as safety measures to avoid further such incidents. This action is a clear indication that Saudi government has taken the issue very seriously.
Must Read: Rolls Royce to launch flying taxi by 2020
Here is the list of some notable games that have been banned by Saudi Arabian government.
- Agents of Mayhem
- Bayonetta 2
- Devils Third
- Deadpool
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Dante’s Inferno
- Draw to Death
- The Witcher 3
- Thief
- Watch Dogs
In past, we have witnessed many cases of self destruction by children due to online games from all over the world. The point is children cannot be supervised all the time by parents. Although, parents need to keep a check on the changing behavior of their children as a result of playing online games as this can lead to serious situation later on.
So, here government and officials can play their positive role by banning the video games that have the potential to create negative impact on children’s mind. It will help parents and might prove to be a positive move in decreasing behavior problems in children.
Despite the fact that nobody can totally control the online material and traffic, still there are safety measures which can be applied to minimize the negative impact of harmful online content for children.
